Ukrainians plead for Mariupol rescue; Russian advance crawls

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV and YESICA FISCH
Associated Press

KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian forces are fighting village by village to hold back a Russian advance in their country’s east, while the United Nations works to broker a civilian evacuation from the ruins of the city of Mariupol. Ukrainian officials have said that up to 1,000 civilians are living with soldiers beneath a sprawling steel plant that is the city’s last defensive holdout. Russian state media report Saturday that 25 civilians have been evacuated from the plant, though U.N. and Ukrainian officials haven’t confirmed that. Video from inside the Soviet-era Azovstal steelworks that two Ukrainian women shared with The Associated Press shows wounded men with stained bandages, open wounds and amputated limbs.